ILMK 2015 e-book bestsellers

After all, I do poll you from time to time…there are probably people who extrapolate from that to Amazon customers, and even from that to the population at large.

I don’t think so.

My sense has been that my readers are more likely to be serious readers…that is, I think they are more likely to have reading as a big part of their lives than the average American.

I also think they are more engaged with the e-book world. I think they are more likely to be aware of the issues, and to know who the authors are…and who the publishers are.

Certainly, there may be a loop here: it may be that people who are my readers also become more engaged with the e-book world because they are reading more about it…and actively intellectually interact with it, through polls and comments.

However, I do think that they initially get involved with the blog because of a heightened interest.

So, I decided to go ahead and do something I’ve been reluctant to do before: give you a list of the Kindle e-book bestsellers through ILMK this year.

I haven’t wanted to it because…well, I don’t like to make this blog about sales.

Oh, I’m happy to help out lesser known authors. It gives me a kick to feel like I made a difference in the success of somebody’s book, even though I think my influence is actually pretty small.

The other thing is that I don’t want people to think I’m looking at what they buy…or click on…or read. I don’t see anything tied into individuals at all. I just get aggregate stats…that so many people did “x”, not who they are.

That said, let’s take a look at Kindle e-book sales from Amazon.com through ILMK for 2015 (through December 14th…there will be more sales between now and the end of the year, especially after people get new devices, but this should give us an idea).

I can’t really give you the specific numbers (you may have noticed that Amazon doesn’t do that)😉 so what I’m going to do is make the one that has sold the most as 100%, then rank the others based against that. In other words, if the top seller sold 1,000 copies (really licenses), and the second one sold 750, the second one would show as 75%. If the third one sold 250, it would be 25%, and so on.

2.One Murder More (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) by Kris Calvin. This is by my sibling, and I have mentioned it several times.🙂 While it has been recognized by Amazon (by being one of the few books picked for its first physical store, for example), and has been well received by Amazon customers (63 customer reviews, 4.7 stars out of 5), it has undoubtedly sold relatively better through this blog than at Amazon generally. It’s currently ranked 579,404 aid in the USA Kindle store out of 4,109,509…top 15%, which is quite impressive for a first time novelist from a non-Big 5 publisher! Not on Amazon’s 100 bestsellers list. 78%

3. (tie) Churchill: A Life (at AmazonSmile*) by Martin Gilbert. This one had also been on sale…but I do think it shows something that a non-fiction book from 1967 was a top-seller with my readers this year. I have not read this. Not on Amazon’s bestsellers list. 44%

3. (tie) The Martian (at AmazonSmile*) by Andy Weir. My readers picked this as a read for me in my first poll like that, and I did enjoy it. It had what should end up as a top ten domestic grossing movie adaptation (2015 Movie Box Office: 40, 80, 1, 2 , 3) which is likely to get significant Oscar nominations. It was originally independently published. #4 on Amazon’s list. 44%

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection (Calvin and Hobbes series Book 9)

Indigo Slam: An Elvis Cole Novel

Maude

Spinster’s Gambit

The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Days Are Just Packed (Calvin and Hobbes series Book 8)

The Einstein Prophecy

The Girl on the Train

The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation

The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game

There you go! I’d say it does show that ILMK readers are different from the general Amazon population of Amazon’s customers.🙂

I’m very interested in any feedback you might have on this post, since it is something new, and I sort of feel like I’ve crossed a line. Do you like seeing what my readers as a group bought through the blog? Did it surprise you that I can see that data? Does it bother you? What do you think about the actual titles, and how they compare to Amazon’s list? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.

is more than thirty (!) of the bestselling 87th Precinct books by Ed McBain, including Cop Hater (the first book in the series) for $1.99 each. This major backlist series is now published by Amazon (in e-book form). These would make a good gift…and they make a good argument for Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*) (which can also be given as a gift), since they are available through that service at no additional cost.

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

2 Responses to “ILMK 2015 e-book bestsellers”

I’m not quite sure about your list. Is it only for books that were specifically featured and linked on the ILMK blog, or just from all books bought through any Amazon link on your blog? For example, sometimes I might click on a link to a book on your blog, read the sample through “look inside” and decide not to buy it. However, there might be a link on that book’s page to another book that I do end up buying, so would that second book be included?

If this applies only to books that you specifically link, then it would be a very filtered sort of list. The list would probably consist of books that have caught your interest as well as books that have been featured as deals or that appeared on some other sort of list. It would exclude any books that do not use text to speech.

In terms of it being a filtered list, that’s certainly true.🙂 That’s a reasonable point: if I had featured all four million plus USA Kindle store titles in the blog, would the choices then have become the same as the whole Amazon customer populations purchases? My intuition is still no…but it’s only a feeling on my part.